There is a notice about reviewing the topics and being sure that your student is mature enough to handle some of the content, especially on sexuality and reproduction.

Now, I may be a little biased because I love Apologia, but seriously, I keep my reviews honest and try to give you a good picture of what we thought. This curriculum is designed for high school students and is set to be taught for an entire year. If you follow the schedule laid out your student will complete 3 assignments per week for a year. You can adjust the schedule to cover 5 assignments a week and complete it in one semester if you choose. The course does qualify for one full credit and meets the state standards for a health course if you need it.

Suggested schedule for the yearly track.

I chose to use it as a full year, especially since my struggling learner 9th grader is still so difficult to get through his assignments. I really like the schedule that is suggested but at times it didn't necessarily seem to flow well. A perfect example was when we got to Module 3 and the first assignment included completing project 3.1. There are 21 self-care tips that they ask him to list but based on the reading assignment for the day it only goes to tip 11. The project does say to complete as they get to the tips, but that means they don't finish the assignment until later, but it is not listed again as an assignment for later days, there are new project assignments. This confused him and frustrated him and made him think he had to do extra work.

On Your Own (OYO) section of homework.

I like that it is only 3 days per week so that he gets a break on the subject. This part of high school will be better for him to have different subjects on different days. It is still such a struggle with him. The layout of this curriculum will help ease him into high school work. He is learning more to use a syllabus per se and follow a schedule on his own for more independent work. I know most have already accomplished this with younger students but not so in my circumstance. The amount of reading is very reasonable and I really like how they leave a decent amount of space in the workbook to take notes on the reading. It is also part of the good training I have mentioned. Getting him to highlight and take notes is like pulling teeth!!

Sample Project page for homework.

While the On Your Own (OYO) questions and answers are in the textbook, the textbook DOES NOT include the Project assignments, study guides (for the tests), or tests. You need the Student Workbook for the project assignments, study guides, and tests. Speaking of answers, I do not like that the answers to the OYO questions are in the book. Nor do I like that the tests are included in the back of the Student Workbook. This is very bad in my situation since we are not at the point of honesty and trust where cheating does not occur. There really needs to be a separate Teacher Guide. I know most wouldn't like this because of the extra cost, but really, answers and tests need to be separate. I get that this is set up for self-study and that is great, it just doesn't work in my situation. At the beginning of the Student Workbook, there is a page on instructional support and Apologia generally has audio and visual resources for their courses. I could probably use this for this course but neither are available at this time. I hope they will be forthcoming.

Sample page of grading sheet.

As far as grading goes, there is a nice grading page in the student workbook with complete directions and tips on how to go about grading the assignments (a nice rubric). This leads me to another wonderful resource that Apologia provides, their online Book Extras. You get a password in your book to use for additional resources. For Health and Nutrition, this includes links for further study for each module (organized by module) and the answer key for all the tests.

Book Extras online page links.

We are into Module 3 and I will still have to go back and clean up a few areas he has missed. He is just not in the self-study mode at this point. I really like being able to go to the extra resource links on the Book Extras page online and delve a little deeper into the subject matters discussed. Another extra that is available is the FREE activity e-book, Whole-Health, God's Design for Your Body, Mind, and Soul. It has more information on who you are and how you interact with the world around you. It discusses influences in your daily life and has work pages for you to log a week-long diary describing your everyday influences. It also includes a nice Q and A with author Laura Chase, snack suggestions, snack recipe, and a fun word search.

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About Me

I am a wife, mother, teacher, and believer in Jesus, my Savior. I homeschool my son and daughter. Our family moved to a 5-acre plot of land in the late summer of 2007 and we enjoy learning to homestead a little at a time. We have a long way to go but are rejoicing in the journey.